Video: The Fintry Ayrshires

[Black screen with title: The Fintry Ayrshires]

[Slow background music. Black and white photo of a man pruning roses growing along the side of a large house and screened porch.]

I expected the best from myself, from what Fintry produced, from the men who worked for me. The two brothers who shared management of the estate weren’t pulling their weight and the Hereford cattle weren’t winning enough prizes,

[Black and white photo of two men sprayer trees in an orchard.]

[Black and white photo of cows with white faces and horns, following a wagon carrying bags and boxes. As the image scrolls right, a man can be seen driving the wagon with two horses in front.]

So, in 1924, I fired the men, sold the cattle and found a grand new manager, Angus Gray. He did everything superbly and actually stayed at Fintry until it was sold in 1948.

[Black and white close-up photo of a distinguished looking man standing in front of a fireplace mantel inside a house. As the photo pans back, a woman can be seen to his right, gazing at the man.]

As for the cattle, I turned to the fine Ayrshire dairy cows I’d known as a boy in Scotland. If the Okanagan was good for a Scotsman it should be good for Scottish cattle too.

[Black and white photo of cows in a field. The horned cow closest is looking at the camera.]

Now if I was going to have the very best Ayrshires, I had to have the finest barn for them.

[Black and white photo of an eight-sided barn with a steeply sloped roof.]

I commissioned an architect, a friend from Cambridge days who then worked in Vancouver.

[Faded colour photo of the inside of the barn, showing a concrete walkway circling iron posts, or stanchions, of milking pens. The inside of the barn appears round and has many windows.]

He designed this rather unusual but work-saving octagonal dairy barn.

[Colour photo of a large bucket suspended by ropes from a track along the ceiling. This is the manure bucket, to carry manure to be dumped into the concrete manure pit outside the barn. The bucket was raised and lowered by chain and ran along an overhead track that circled the barn interior.]

Since I had running water with lots of pressure I was even able to put in a cement floor, most unusual at the time.

[Colour photo of part of a round silo in the centre of the barn. Rakes, brooms, a pitchfork and other farm tools are fastened to the side of the silo.]

[Colour photo of the barn interior showing the cement floor, the silo, iron stanchions of milking pens to the left and a pen to the left with black, detailed posts. The pens were for calves or, according to some ex-dairymen, for very special cows or bulls.]

I missed Alice terribly, and to fill the void I spent more and more time with the Ayrshires.

[Black and white headshot photo of a middle-aged woman with sad eyes. Her hair is pinned up.]

[Black and white photo of a casually dressed man holding a large milk cow by a rope and rope halter. The man appears surprised. The cow looks bored.]

I wanted the very best so I imported purebred stock from Ayr, Scotland.

[Black and white photo of a large cow being brushed (or patted) by a happy man. The man is Art Harrop, a dairyman at Fintry for many decades.]

In 1929 I gave one herd to the University of British Columbia. It was the basis of their dairy operation for many years.

[Black and white photo of mother ”Fintry Honeysuckle” and daughter “Bumblebee” dairy cows. They are looking with interest toward the camera. Both cows have a white heart pattern on their forehead.]

I wanted to promote the breed, so I sold another herd to local farmers at very reasonable prices.

[Black and white photo of a younger man, Art Harrop, holding the rope and bridle of a large cow and looking at the cow with interest.]

The third lot I kept at Fintry, and a credit they were. We captured trophies for both the amount and quality of milk these fine animals gave.

[Black and white photo of a large, engraved silver bowl.]

[Black and white close-up photo of a silver cow topping a silver trophy.]

My Fintry Honeysuckle gave more milk than any other Ayrshire in Canada for two years running. I gave breeding stock away too, to calf clubs and Farmers’ Institutes.

[Black and white photo of three calves in front of a fence.]

For example, all through the 1930s, I presented a Fintry heifer to a member of the Ayrshire Calf Club at the Armstrong Fair every year.

[Black and white photo of a row of many cows held by dairymen. A barn and buildings are in the background. This is at the Armstrong Fair.]

Some of my animals were sold as far away as China and Japan.

[Black screen with title/credits: Dun-Waters Dream: The Story of Fintry. Friends of Fintry Provincial Park Society.]